Video is no Longer a Market Genre
[by Gail Mooney]
When I started giving seminars about video for ASMP a few years back, video was a separate genre of “photography.” In fact, most didn’t even consider it a genre of photography at all, but rather a totally different skill set and craft.
Fast forward three years and video has infiltrated just about every photography market and genre, from editorial to architectural photography. No longer a separate genre, video has become part of the photography business.
If you’re a photojournalist these days, you pretty much have to know how to shoot video, whether you shoot with a hybrid camera or a traditional video camera. Most publishing companies are demanding video for their online and mobile device editions of their publications.
Wedding shooters are now providing both video and still photography to their clients. Rather than compete for a piece of the photographic budget with a videographer who has been hired separately, or deal with the frustration of getting in each other’s way, the day of the wedding, savvy still photographers are handing both stills and video. They may not shoot both mediums themselves, but they take care of both needs for their clients and coordinate those efforts.
Corporate photography has always been a big market for me. In the glory days of glossy annual reports, I made a lot of money in the corporate photography genre. These days, my corporate clients have shifted a lot of their dollars to video. I can’t remember the last time that I shot for a corporate client that didn’t include a video component. I don’t let those dollars go elsewhere. I provide solutions for both video and still photographic needs on the job. My clients like it because it’s cost effective and it streamlines the workflow as well as unifies the “look” of the content. It’s a win/win.
Video is rapidly becoming part of almost every photography market niche. That’s not to say that still photography is passé, but rather to point out that a video component is becoming a standard in the overall business of photography.
When I think of the definition of what a photographer will be in the future – I think of someone who is able to provide both stills and motion content and deliver their clients’ message with the whatever camera does that best.
Gail Mooney has recently finished her first feature film Opening Our Eyes. Watch the trailer and find out more about this project at: www.openingoureyesmovie.com
